My original plan for this year… My actual results

My original plan for this year: To have 40 jumps done by October (The end of the season here)

My actual results: It’s only the begining of July and I’m already at 47…

My original plan for this year: To spend no more than 1000$ on jumps after completing my solo course in florida…

My actual results: I’ve spent 3337$ (not counting the 1750$ for the solo course, the 350$ for the jump suit, or the 1200$ spent going to Florida to take that solo course)

My original plan for this year: To prepare myself for my A license and then possibly take the RW and packing courses at the begining of next season.

My actual results: I’ve not only completed my RW and packing course, I’ve already done the A license exam and sent it in, and am already somewhat started on getting my B…

My original plan for this year: Maybe buy a jump suit once I had some experience and start looking at gear for next year.

My actual results: I’ve had my jump suit since I took my solo course (before even completing my 1st jump, I had already bought a pit special with canvas grips and vented booties), I now have a black factory diver on the way (It’s still on back-order), I’m also waiting to demo an altimeter, and I have a packing tool already in the mail on it’s way to me… Yes, I have a packing tool on the way before even having a rig to pack

My original plan for this year: To get comfortable with landing a student canopy and maybe try out a big sport canopy next season.

My actual results: I’m already bored with those slow student canopies, have been jumping sport 190s and am now looking at downsizing what I jump to a 170, to then possibly buy a 150 for myself… (For those of you who think 190, 170, 150 is all gipperish, it’s the size of the parachute, the bigger the parachute proportionally to one’s weight, the slower you descend, for example, a 190 is 190 sq ft, with a 1.0 load, it would be 190 lbs of weight, so the weight of the person + equipment would be 190 lbs. a load of 1.5 for the same weight person would be a 126 sq ft parachute (which would go down VERY fast). I’m right now looking at going to a 170, which would be a load of 1.088)

As you can see, and as I’ve noticed, I haven’t at all been in line with my original plans… I’ve surpassed all of them, which in some cases is a good thing… I.E. my level of experience, which is great. I still know NOTHING about the sport, but I know way more than I had originally hoped to :).
However, I’ve also spent more than triple my original budget for the year (For next year, I’m actually setting aside 4 times the money that I had set aside for this year, plus I’m putting 5k aside to buy a rig, so I’ll get double the jumps for the same money… I’m just hoping that I don’t overshoot THAT budget as well :-/)

- Adam out.

Hopefully your blue skies aren’t as smog filled as the ones I see outside my window right now =D